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Today’s Lecture:
Civil Rights and Discrimination
Session Topic(s)
13 11/12
Lecture Organization:
Class Announcements
Conceptualizing Discrimination
Civil Rights Movement
Passing the Civil Rights Act
What the Civil Rights Act Does
Proving The Discrimination Case
The Incentives of the Law
The Fallacies of Aggregate Percentages
Class Announcements
notes
-- some of you haven’t picked them up
exam retake
-- contact me if you are still interested
Class Announcements
Reading for the Final
-- Only two chapters – 12 and 28.
(note: you can sell your book back to the book store and
get a 50% refund)
No grade rounding
-- Consult syllabus to see how border grades are handled
Class Announcements
Questions?
slight modification
-- Treat notes/attendance as a single item:
notes
Composite 34%
attendance
-- I’m going to give you the higher of two grade calcs – one
with the composite, one without
-- The composite can only help you, not hurt you
Conceptualizing Discrimination
social distance
-- sociologists have come up with an interesting idea
Reduction of social space
As a son or daughter – one of the family
In your home – eating dinner
In swimming
In school;pools,Church,
riding sidewalks,
country
the sameclubs the lunch
bus,– same mall
private social
counter,
networks
etc.
1 2 3 4 5
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Conceptualizing Discrimination
neurological theories
-- neurologists have come up with an interesting idea as
well:
• discrimination may have a neurological component to
it
Cognitive Theory of Racism
Emotive
intelligence Arithmetic, logic,
symbol
Human Brain
Computation combination
Pleasure center Brain highs:
1. Drugs
Sectors Synthetic 2. Love
functions 3. Chocolate
Linking the other 4. (Me:
Fear, sectors together; Steelers)
Insecurity synthesizing
Activated when knowledge;
the human is comparison and
threatened contrast
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Group A
[mention school fights in Texas town from
removed New Orleans community]
1. Jewish people
2. Asians Group B
3. Race is the largest barrier
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1. Politics and selfishness
Group A play a role too
(“ideology”)
2. So does social learning
Universal application:
1. Can apply this to anything: even children who castigate at
school
2. Racism is part of a larger failing explained by certain
cognitive functioning. (Needs an intervention. A kind of
therapy ) Group B
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The Civil Rights Movement
segregation
-- prior to the civil rights act, there were many institutions
that discriminated because of race
-- it was legal to purposely and intentionally discriminate
The Civil Rights Movement
segregation
George McLaurin
-- a professor with a
master’s degree
-- He wanted to get his
Ph.D
-- Here is a picture …
The Civil Rights Movement
Rosa Parks
-- a seamstress who refused
to give up her seat in the
front of a bus, and was
removed
-- African-American
community in Montgomery
responded by boycotting city
busses
-- It lead to a court suit that
stopped segregation in
public transportation
The Civil Rights Movement
Dr. King
1. Emerged as a leader in
Montgomery Alabama
2. Had formed the Southern
Christian Leadership Conference
• adopted the tactics of Mahatma
Ghandi (who had led resistance
against the British in India)
The Civil Rights Movement
Dr. King
-- Tactics included:
(1) demonstrations and
marches;
(2) peaceful resistance
to unjust laws
The Civil Rights Movement
Malcolm X
-- philosophy should be
contrasted with the nation of
Islam, Black Panthers and
Malcolm X (more militant
philosophies).
[mention Malcom X’s movement
toward King]
The Civil Rights Movement
“sit-ins”
-- Greensboro North Carolina
• four students sat at the lunch counter in Woolworths
and asked for a cup of coffee
• the waitress refused service, but they stayed anyway
• they were arrested
(think about what that must be like)
-- more students came back and did the same thing
-- soon, sit ins were spreading to over 100 cities
examine the faces
pouring food items
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The Civil Rights Movement
protest marches in the 60s
-- charges: disturbing the peace; disorderly conduct, etc.
(Courts upheld the free speech)
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The Civil Rights Movement
did it work?
-- polls show that most whites thought that the tactics
were offensive – “pushing too hard, too fast.” (sentiment)
-- however, at the same time, polls shows that most
whites favored integration more than ever before
-- tactics had some positive effects on localities
more cities and counties passed ordinances outlawing
segregation
The Civil Rights Movement
considering Alabama
history
-- when civil rights leaders would hold a meeting
explaining how to become registered to vote …
• police would show up and record your name
• landlords threatened to evict you
The Civil Rights Movement
considering Alabama
history
-- registration office:
• mysteriously closed the day of the drive
• employees took long lunch break if an American of
African descent was at the counter
• literacy test would be administered
The Civil Rights Movement
considering Alabama
protests and demonstrations
-- demonstrators met with cattle prods
-- state judge issued an order: no more than 3
Americans of African descent can meet at one time
• protests became violent …
• police beating people up
• hosing people down
• school children being victimized
… all while the country watches on television
The Murder of Jimmie Lee Jackson --
In one march, police killed a 26 year old protester, Jimmy Lee Jackson,
and beat up an NBC television reporter. The next day the reporter
described the murder fro his hospital bed with his head bandaged and
words slurred.
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The Civil Rights Movement
Bloody Sunday
-- protestors attempted to march from Selma to
Montgomery, the capital of Alabama.
-- They didn’t even make it out of Selma
-- a sea of police officers with tear gas masks sprayed teat
gas and beat people with night sticks
-- hence the name, “bloody Sunday”
-- the media coverage was effective
(it led to another march on Montgomery that was very
successful)
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Passing The Civil Rights Act
Kennedy
-- A weak president in 1960
• margin of victory, bay of pigs,
communist problem
• he knows that the South is
very important for Democrats to
win elections.
-- He delays on the civil rights, which infuriates Dr. King.
Passing The Civil Rights Act
Kennedy
-- But to Kennedy’s credit, he goes
to bat for the issue right before an
election year -- 1963.
-- he addresses the nation on
television and formally submits his
civil rights bill into Congress
Passing The Civil Rights Act
passing the act
the House
-- passes 290-130 (LBJ instrumental)
Passing The Civil Rights Act
passing the act
the Senate
-- Filibuster:
• need 2/3rds vote in the Senate to cut off debate
• (today, just 60 votes; back then 66.)
-- Length of the debate
• months continuously
• people sleeping in the hallway
• could not cut off the filibuster
Passing The Civil Rights Act
passing the act
Evert Dirksen
-- conservative Illinois Senator
-- he changes his mind about cloture
-- slight negotiations
(make the Bill match northern civil rights bills)
-- cloture is a success; filibuster ends; Bill passes
-- overall vote totals …
Passing The Civil Rights Act
passing the act
more regional than partisan
(southern Democrats strongly opposed)
The Original House version:
Southern Democrats: 7-87 (7%-93%)
Southern Republicans: 0-10 (0%-100%)
Northern Democrats: 145-9 (94%-6%)
Northern Republicans: 138-24 (85%-15%)
The Senate version:
Southern Democrats: 1-20 (5%-95%)
Southern Republicans: 0-1 (0%-100%)
Northern Democrats: 45-1 (98%-2%)
Northern Republicans: 27-5 (84%-16%)
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What the Civil Rights Act Does
Question:
What does the civil rights
act do, and if you violate
it, what happens?
What the Civil Rights Act Does
the basic idea
1. Every state in the union also has a civil rights act as
well.
2. Outlaws discrimination in everything that “counts:”
• Employment
• Banking/Lending
• Housing
• Public Accommodations (businesses, hotels, stores,
theaters, etc., etc.)
What the Civil Rights Act Does
the basic idea
-- Does not outlaw purely private clubs or organizations
from discriminating. It must be a “public accommodation”
to count
(stores, theaters, banks, landlords, realtors, stores,
shopping malls, etc., -- “public accommodation”)
What the Civil Rights Act Does
an ideological explanation
-- The Equal Protection Clause tells government that it
cannot discriminate
-- Civil Rights laws say, in effect, that capitalism cannot
either
Equal Protection government
Civil Rights Act “capitalism”
What the Civil Rights Act Does
the sanction
-- the laws allow you to sue discriminators for damages.
-- If someone discriminates, you can get back pay, plus
interest, lost earning capacity and in some cases punitive
damages
(“tort culture” “lawsuit culture”)
(Compare: doctors versus lawyers)
Proving the Discrimination Case
two kinds of lawsuits
-- there are two types of lawsuits
• intentional discrimination
• non-intentional (didn’t mean to “discriminate”)
Proving the Discrimination Case
intentional discrimination
Someone has a subjective intention to discriminate on the
basis of race:
• Someone will consciously make a choice to hurt
someone else because of an ingrained social distance
about their race or ancestry
non-intentional discrimination
-- No feeling of social distance (bad feelings, attitudes or
motivations) needed
-- But your actions have the EFFECT of discriminating
Proving the Discrimination Case
The intentional case
Evidence:
“direct evidence” --
• racial epithet
• reputation for social distance
• or anything that circumstantially shows an intention
(Damages are more severe)
Conceptualizing this ….
“Discriminator”
Archie Victim
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Two basic things will happen ….
#1 – An Injurious Act
• failure to hire
“Discriminator” • firing
• failure to promote
• demotion
• a transfer
Archie Victim
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Two basic things will happen ….
#1 – An Injurious Act
#2 – Circumstantial Suspicion
“Discriminator” • racial epitaph
• “jokes”
• pattern of conduct
• general reputation
for racial animosity
Archie Victim
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Two basic things will happen ….
#1 – An Injurious Act
#2 – Circumstantial Suspicion
“Discriminator”
• lost wages
• lost earning
capacity
• future lost wages
• possibly punitive
damages
Archie Victim
• attorney fees
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Proving the Discrimination Case
non-intentional discrimination
-- No feeling of social distance (bad feelings, attitudes or
motivations) needed
(in fact, your motivations can be completely innocent)
But your actions have the EFFECT of discriminating
-- NOTE: this is not illegal if the practice is a “business
necessity” or a “bona fide occupational qualification”
Question:
How do you prove
this?
Issue:
Business Necessity?
Bona Fide Occupational
Qualification?
#1 – Seemingly “Innocent”
#2 – Discriminatory Consequence
• hiring only family
members
• requiring a philosophy
degree to be a truck
driver
• promoting “in house”
Andy Griffith • layoffs by seniority Victim
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Proving the Discrimination Case
burden shift
-- If you prove disparate treatment or impact, the burden
of proof then SHIFTS
-- Employer has to prove his or her “innocence”
-- prove that he or she did not have a “guilty mind” (for
intentional cases) or that the business practice was
legitimate (for “impact” cases).
Question:
Why do we do this?
Is this “fair?”
The Incentives of the Law
Question:
What do these laws do in
practice? What is their
basic function?
The Incentives of the Law
police numbers
-- the laws help confront the basic problem:
• social distance in capitalist institutions
-- the Laws force employers to look at their numbers
• Low numbers expose you to lawsuits
-- Examples:
• women attorneys
(what people say on the academic job market)
The Incentives of the Law
problems with the laws
-- Lawyers are “gun-shy” to take race cases before all-
white juries
-- “Mixed motivations” makes proof tricky
-- Laws are probably “under-prosecuted”
Rural southern county in West
The Incentives of the Law
Virginia
problems with the laws Racial attitudes are very bad
Some personal Failure to promote
examples:
state trooper case … Failure to hire other African
Americans
Harassment
Case paid $40,000, plus remedial
affirmative-action program, and
consideration in two years for
promotion. (transfer?)
The Incentives of the Law
African-American
problems with the laws terminated for marijuana
possession and sale (major
Some personal newspaper bust)
examples:
employment termination White employee not
… terminated for being
arrested for a small quantity
of prescription drug use
Disparate treatment; burden
shift
Case pays a partial value.
Fallacies in Aggregate Percentages
intro
-- Sometimes, claims of discrimination involve a statistical
fallacy that we want to avoid
-- Reasoning with percentages is always a hazardous idea
… let’s look
The Fallacy of Aggregate Percentages
Women
Women Computer Science Majors
Target
Population
Total Population
Question: 8%
Does this mean that
computer science
50%
programs “discriminate?”
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The Fallacy of Aggregate Percentages
African Americans
Philosophy Majors
Target
Population
Total Population
Question:
Does this mean that 1%
philosophy departments
26% are discriminating?
Consider another example
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The Fallacy of Aggregate Percentages
New Concept
Applicant Flow Data
• Those qualified who apply
Target
Population
Total Population
Applicant Pool Data
• Those who are qualified for the
job
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The Fallacy of Aggregate Percentages
New Concept
Applicant Flow Data
• Those qualified who apply
Target
If Applicant Flow doesn’t
Population
match the Target, you
Total Population
have statistical
discrimination!
Applicant Pool Data
If Applicant Pool doesn’t • Those who are qualified for the
match the Target, you job
may or may not have an
adverse impact case
(courts disagree) Copyright, Sean Wilson. 2007.
12/07/2021 62
Football and Johnny Cochrane Johnny Cochrane and
the Rooney Rule
African Americans Football coaches
Applicant Applicant Target
8% ??
Pool Flow Population
NFL Population
50% 10% 8%
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More Fallacies of Group Reasoning
Women
Women Workers Does this prove
that women are Wages
discriminated
40%
against in pay?
Target
40%
Population
Total Population Criterial Pool
• Those qualities, X, that determine pay
apart from discrimination 38%
• job productivity
• seniority
50%
• leaving to have a baby
• opportunity cost (market worth)
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